Race shows strength of engineering, components in plain view

Every year since 1911, there’s a little tradition from our neighboring state that has no less than 1 in every 1,000 Americans gathering into one location the Sunday before Memorial Day – the Indianapolis 500. So while the rest of the country sees open wheel race cars hurtling through the track at over 230 miles an hour, our engineers see a lot of components under high stress for no less than 500 miles.

That said, there was one particular incident that showed just how high strength those components actually are. Just one quarter into the race, the pole sitter, Scott Dixon hit backmarker Jay Howard to launch him up into the air, spinning him into a midair barrel roll and crashing him into the Turn 2 wall at over 220 miles an hour. Needless to say, the car was destroyed, but amazingly both Dixon and Howard walked out of the accident with nothing but a twisted ankle.

Seeing Mr. Dixon step out of his destroyed car seemed like a miracle, yet we knew it was something else – the culmination of the very engineering genius that we strive for each and every day at CFI.

This one Sunday in May, every piece of carbon fiber, every nut and bolt, every piece of forged steel, every piece of technology in Scott Dixon’s car worked in unison, did its designed job and saved a man’s life.

At CFI, our engineers work tirelessly on our automotive products to think about the end goal – the safety of the passengers who will eventually use them in their automobiles. Whether it’s a component that seems insignificant or a major safety part.

Why? Because when you’re transporting human beings, each and every part is a major safety part – and one day, it might be called upon to save a life as well.

When you’re dealing with high speed motorsports, aerospace, or any other high-stress components – the needs are ultimately the same. The materials must be light and the tensile strength must be out of this world because we’re not just transporting lifeless cargo, we’re transporting the hopes and dreams of a living, breathing human being and those hopes and dreams may rest on the engineering of our components. At CFI, we’re up to the challenge.